CAT. BY 1. C B. 
 
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SERVING OUR  GENERATION!,
A D1S C O IT RSE
COMMEMORATIVE OF
THE  LIFE WOEK
() F
&
JOHN D.  FORD, M. I).

DELIVERED IN THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, WINONA,
   MINNESOTA, SABBATH, NOVEMBER 3D, 1807.
BY REV. GEORGE M. STONE.
       WINONA:
liKEEN A GILE, PRINTERS, DEMOCRAT OFFH K.
         1867.
*-«-«x»-«>* 
 
 
 
   SERVING OUR GENERATION.


      A DIS C OUKSE

        COMMEMORATIVE OF

  THE LIFE WORK
            O F

JOHN D. FORD, M. D
DELIVERED IN THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, WINONA,
   MINNESOTA, SABBATH, NOVEMBER oD, 1867.
BY REV. GEORGE M. STONE.
      W T N O N A :
anV.RS <t GILE, PRINTERS, DEMOCRAT OFFICF..
        1867. 
                            I'O











                      [correspondence.]

                                        Winona, Nov. 9. 1867.
To Rev. Geo. M. Stone:
  Dear Sir: The undersigned having listened with deep interest to
the sermon preached by you on Sunday morning the 3d instant, com-
memorative of our late esteemed fellow citizen, Dr. John D. Ford,
and feeling assured that its publication would be  gratifying to the
numerous friends of the lamented deceased, would respectfully re-
quest a copy thereof for that purpose.
                       Very truly yours,
                        War. F. PHELPS,    J.  W. SPRAGUE,
                        THOS. WILSON,     J.  H. STEWART,
                        Wm. S. DREW,      H. P. SPERRY.
                                       Winona, Nov. 11, 1867.
 Messrs. J. W. Spraque, Wm. F. Phelps, and others: Your note
of the 9th instant, requesting a copy of the memorial discourse having
reference to the life and services of Dr. Ford is received. I submit to
your judgment in the matter, and will soon place the manuscript in
your hands.
 Hoping that its publication may in some degree serve the great in-
terests  of education and religion,
                      I am most sincerely yours.
                                            Geo. M. Stone. 
MEMORIAL  DISCOURSE.
 Acts: 13 36.—For David, after he had served his own generation by
the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers.

  The motto in German upon the  coat-of-arms of the
Prince of Wales is "Iserve."  Service, in our providen-
tial allotment, is", in the light of our  Master's words,
the best distinction of king or subject.  His declaration
to his disciples,  "Whosoever will be chief among you,
let him be your servant," was a seed truth, which waits
only upon  time to revolutionize the maxims  and the
conditions  of human society.  In the  text, an inspired
epitome of David's life, we have added to the simple idea
of service, the fact of its application to a given genera-
tion.  "David, after he had served his  own generation,
by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid  unto  his
fathers."  His work was wisely adjusted to his time.—
He studied his generation  and served  it with fidelity,
until having toiled out the day of life, he fell asleep upon
his royal throne, and was gathered to his fathers.  Then,
he rendered this service "by the will of God."  He who
would adjust himself completely to the work of his time
must  go up into  God's counsel through a believing
union with him.
  We take these three thoughts as suggesting lessons be-
fitting this hour, in  which summoned by common  af-
fection, and common grief, we meet to dwell on the re- 
6
moval of a citizen and a brother, whose high meed of
praise is that "he served his generation by the will of God.
  I.  Service is our human lot, and when well rendered is
our glory and our crown.  We are each and all servants.
There is behind and above every life a power overseeing
and commanding it.   No life-plan is absolutely self-pro-
jected.  Every man is moved and controlled by certain
dominant principles, and these principles head either in
Christ or in Belial.  The springs of motivity are  hidden
in both cases.  An unseen hand holds the reins of our
spirits, and time in its developments, is showing whether
that hand is the one which was nailed to the cross or the
one which was raised in impious revolt in heaven.  Our
work neither terminates upon ourselves, nor originates
with ourselves.  Man is at highest only a second cause.
We come into being in the presence of mighty antagon-
istic causes, on the one hand, and their diverse effects on
the other.  No soul can hold an equipoise between these.
"Choose ye whom ye will serve,"is the utterance of our
consciousness as well as the word of God.  It is this fact
lying at the threshold of our lives, which invests their
early stages with  such transcendent interest.  When the
traveler upon the Arabian deserts rises in the morning,
his first work is  to observe the rising sun, and fix  his
course for the day.  The Orientals have given  a name
to this  process.  They say a man "orients  himself."—
Every point of the compass is determined when  the sun
is discovered in its place, and the traveler chooses his di-
rection intelligently and safely.  Suppose a company of
travelers should  neglect  this observation,  and choose
their path from the tracks left in the sand  by the cara-
vans which had preceded them.  The next simoon of the
desert is likely to cover them for miles, and they are left
upon the treeless ocean to reap a settled despair as the
fruit of their folly. Like pilgrims  on the desert's edge
are we, when we come into the conscious inheritance of
this life. We are both instruments and agents.  Agents
because we choose whom we will serve, and instruments 
7
because, having made choice, we enter upon a course of
life-long service.  We must choose our master powers.—
If we take God as our sun, and his law as our compass,
we shall succeed. Fall when and where we may, if we
die inserted in God's great plan, there can be no failure.
But if we look below, choose our way from the variable
standards of men, our end will be to be overwhelmed
with confusion and  defeat darker than the grave.  It is
a point worthy of being noted here, that the whole drift
and direction of life is sometimes determined by what
appears at  the time to be a trivial circumstance.  The
choice of a  situation or an employer, our decision upon
the business we are to follow for life, may set us in the
road toward eternal honor, or push us aside into the by-
path of sin. Who does not remember the time when he
came to the place where two ways met?  An unwilling-
ness to wait for the  slow returns of industry has brought
many a young man to serve the fearful taskmaster of
Mammon.  Inordinate haste in the acquisition of riches
has stranded many a soul whose early training all drew it
toward Christ.  Then again, an aversion to suffering has
been the weak  element in numerous characters.  Men
choose to put themselves under  the mastery of evil pow-
ers, because for the present they promise ease and immu-
nity from suffering.  It has been said that a human spirit
is never  so nearly  angelic as just before it decides to
forsake the path of virtue.  The powers of heaven invite
and woo it. It beholds in their peerless beauty the re-
wards of the steadfast and just.  But the dark Princi-
pality masses its forces, and " with horrid zeal and exe-
crable art" pushes the onset.  Now a kind look, an en-
couraging  word, is  sometime the feather in the  scale
which causes it  to  dip toward God.   Oh! men of truth,
be true!  And oh! man of the  world, beware!  An ex-
hibition of the immediate advantages of swerving from
truth may  incline a soul forever downwards.  To you is
given the fearful opportunity of imperiling a soul freight-
ed with immortal being.  Having made choice of God, 
8
service is our true glory and joy.  When the veil of sin
is rent, and we are let into something like a just concep-
tion of God, and of our relation to Him, our instinctive
position is, "Command me—use me."  To be an instru-
ment wielded by such a power, and to contribute to ends
so glorious as those which he contemplates, fills our high-
est conception of living.  It is this confidence, that God is
using them, which has in all periods of the Church's his-
tory, raised men quite out of themselves in their earthly
work. With Luther, the feeling that he was  borne on-
ward, in and by the mighty current of  divine purposes,
gave him heart and nerve in circumstances which would
have overmastered human strength.  His whole being
was penetrated with the idea that the  cause was not his,
personally, but God's.  The  heaviest burdens  we ever
carry might be lifted from us, if we would but habitually
recognize our place as servants.  No  one of us is called,
Atlas-like, to carry the world upon our shoulders.  Our
calling is to perform a given and limited work.  This
done in fidelity, we may leave the rest with  him who
carries the cares of this world easier than we can those of
the  smallest sphere.  How,  as with a  kind  of  pride,
does the apostle refer to himself  in  this relation!  He
designates himself constantly as " Paul, a servant of Je-
sus  Christ," varying the  statement,   in  the words,
" whose I am, and whom I serve."
  Nay, more than this, in those glimpses which are giv-
en  us of angelic life in the word of God, we find them
doing the errands of the Almighty. One of them stands
with a drawn sword to turn a disobedient prophet from
his course.  Another—perhaps the same one, strikes off
the chains of Peter in the prison, and  they are spoken of
collectively in the terms, "Are they not all ministering
spirits, sent forth to minister  for them who shall be
heirs of salvation ?"   But if the good are servants, so are
the  evil.  The significant declaration of the Master is
confirmed in the history of every unbeliever.  " Whoso-
ever committeth sin is the servant of sin."  The sinner 
9
is also used.  He is the tool of the rulers of the dark-
ness of this world.  The evil principality is organized,
and in crafty foresight assigns his field and work, to ev-
ery instrument who submits himself to its  mastery.  I
know of no impression  more awakening than the possi-
bility that any of us are being manipulated with our im-
mortal faculties in the interest of the kingdom of evil.—
Oh ! it is a question which should check our ardor in any
pursuit, and cause us to pause at any age.  What powers
am I serving ? and where will the aggregate of my life's
work leave its traces?  I am growing  old, and why?—
My life is being paid out in toil which chisels furrows on
my face, and wrinkles on my brow, for what?  Let each
one answer before God.
  II.  The second thought we are to consider is  that the
highest service is that xohich is wisely adapted to our time.—
David served his own generation.  He who serves his gen-
eration must be a discriminating student of it.  It has
been  said, "the1  noblest study  of mankind is  man."—
What shall we say of the complicated subject presented to
us in a generation of men ?  How sublime a study is the ac-
tion and interaction of causes in this case!  What care-
ful induction from facts, and  what wise weighing of the
bearing of events is necessary to  qualify one to serve any
generation well, and especially such an one as our own !
For generations have their distinctive  characteristics as
truly as do individuals.   Different and peculiar services
are required by different generations.
  Moral principles and laws abide unchangeable in their
nature, but their application to any particular tim6, is a
work ever new and varying.  It has been well said, that
" the clearest and highest generalization we can  reach is
eternal change founded on  eternal unity;  laws which
cannot change, regulating with infinite exactitude, duties
which are susceptible of boundless modification."  Sup-
pose the Hebrew psalmist called to stand amid the scenes
of the present day.   He would find  the forms of life in-
deed changed.  He would find us inheriting the result of 
10
 eighteen  centuries of  Christian civilization.  But  he
 would recognize moral  distinctions immediately.   He
 would see a right now to be maintained, and a wrong to
 be opposed.  Who can doubt that he would bring at once
 from the armory of God its old and well  tried weapons,
 and prove their quality again in the conflicts of to-day?
 He would see in the conflicts of our time, but a continu-
 ation under different circumstances and  names of  the
 same which existed in his life  time.  While nations  de-
 clare war and conclude treaties of peace, God has declared
 perpetual hostility between good and evil, until the lat-
 ter is overthrown in the earth.  Thus each generation is
 to apply eternal and unchangeable standards of truth to
 the then present life and experience.  This is  our allot-
 ment of labor to-day.  We are to take the truths which
 God  has inscribed upon the symbols of commerce and
 civilization in other times, and transfer them to our forms
 of life.  "Holiness to  the Lord" is to be taken from "the
 bells of the horses," and inscribed upon the steam ship
 and the rail car.
  The restless activities of our time are to be turned into
 such channels as will add to the true weal  of the race.—
 No close observer of our generation has failed to mark
 the inquiring spirit which characterizes it.  Ours is not
 one of the slumbering ages. It is rather one of turning
 and  overturning.  The  ipse dixit of antiquity does not
 suffice for us.  Established precedents, however venera-
 ble from age or fame,  are subjected to the severe analysis
 of men, who are dissatisfied until they reach the very
 seeds and foundations of things. Ought we not then, it
 may be asked, to feel unusual solicitude under  such con.
 ditions for  the  kingdom of our Lord?  The man of  en-
 lightened religious faith answers, Nay.  This is the day
 we have prayed and waited for.  We will not now  fail
 to recognize the answer  to our petitions.  The church of
 God reaches her best  state when she stirs the bosom of
 society most deeply to inquire.  It should be our aim so
constantly to keep our Divine  Master before men,  that 
11
they shall be moved to say one to another, "What think
ye of Christ?"  Our work should force men to raise ques-
tions.  If it lead them to examine the foundations upon
which our faith rests, we welcome the fact.  That Bible
which is itself the quickener of our civilization, can bear
to have all the light it produces thrown back upon itself.
It is a time in which to assert the right of private judg-
ment.   To his Judge on high every man stands or falls.
         " Mitres and crowns are man-created things,
         We own no master but the King of Kings."
  Patience however, is needed in such an age.
  We must have faith enough to wait for things to grow.
Over what seems to be chaotic the Spirit of God is brood-
ing, and order divinely beautiful will in  due time ap-
pear.  Prophet-like we must see the purposes which God
has whispered to us from His word,  blossoming into re-
ality.  Because God perseveres, we believe that
   " Humanity sweeps onward. Where to-day the martyr stands,
   To-morrow crouches Judas, with the silver in his hands,
   While the hooting mob of yesterday, in silent awe return,
   To glean up scattered ashes for history's golden urn."
  It is our lot to live in a period  of transition,  and such
periods make greater demands upon our  faith, our pa-
tience, and our zeal than more quiet ages.   Two things
are necessary in order that we may be equipped for ser-
vice at such a time.   First, we must recognize the spirit
of the age, that spirit which God is breathing through it,
and then we must  discriminate those counter-currents
which antagonistic powers are employing to check this
spirit.   Is it not evident that the idea which  God is im-
pressing upon our age is His presence and activity in it?
His providence is daily echoing His  word, that all val-
ues, all world forces, are gathering about the  kingdom  of
His  Son.  On the other hand the marvels  of scientific
discovery are being employed by the opponents of the
gospel,  in  the  interest of materialism  and irreligion.—
Wxhen so much is known of what we call the forces  of
nature, men are apt to be diverted from a recognition  of
a personal living God.  The first cause is overshadowed
by second  causes.  Men of religious faith are called  to




          I*.....          '
                     •i • 
12
stand, a connecting link between the science of the age,
and the God whom it is to glorify.
  III. We can be equipped for service only  by daily
study and application of the revealed will of  God.—
When David ascended the throne after the corrupting
reign of Saul, he said, " Let us bring the ark of our God
again to us, for we inquired not at it in the days of Saul."
Let us now  turn  to it, as the light  to guide us,  and we
shall walk safely.   How the heart of the Christian patri-
ot quails when he contemplates the work of the  present
generation.  I know it is said that men in their  conceit
are apt to over estimate the  importance of their time,
but certainly a survey of the gigantic details  before us
cannot fail to impress us with  the value of these hours of
opportunity,  as well  as inspire strong faith in  an  Al-
mighty arm.  Our work is no less,  by looking  to God
for help, than the permanent establishment of free insti-
tutions on this continent, the education of millions to
bear the burden of a free government, through the diffu-
sion  of a pure Christianity,  the complete  enfranchise-
ment of all our oppressed, and finally the propagation of
the gospel throughout the whole world.  With this mis-
sion before us we  may well say, "cease from man, whose
breath is in his nostrils." By faith we look to God—
                 "Our help in ages past,
                  Our hope in years to come."
  Upon his  arm  we  roll the mighty burden.  These
thoughts have been perhaps appropriate as an  introduc-
tion to a brief analysis of the character of one who ac-
cepted and kept a servant's place, and who lived with
something like a just sense of  its responsibilities.
  John Deming  Ford was born  in Cornish,  New
Hampshire, April 18th,  1816.  His native town has giv-
en to the world not a  few men known to fame, among
whom is  Chief Justice Salmon P.  Chase.  The single
incident which  we have of his youth  is his early  profes- 
13
sion of Christ.  He united with the Baptist church at
twelve years  of  age.  In tracing  some features of his
character which seem to have qualified him for eminent
service in his generation, I remark :
  I. That  Dr. Ford was in the best sense an educated
man.  He graduated from Dartmouth College in  1839,
with a class numbering sixty-one.  Among his classmates
who have achieved honorable distinction,  may be  men-
tioned, the Hon. Geo. G. Fogg,  U.  S.  Senator  from
New Hampshire.  The fact that he completed the curric-
ulum of a literary institution, did not indeed constitute
him a truly educated  man, though we have reason to
conclude that he  laid then broad and  deep the founda-
tions of systematic self-cidture.   His mental powers, orig-
inally more than ordinary, were  developed  by careful
and conscientious culture, throughout his entire life.—
When called, as he was, to form an integral element in
the history of this young and growing State, he brought
to it a mind so trained  and disciplined, and so well fur-
nished with resources,  as to leave upon its polity and in-
stitutions a most lasting and  valuable impress.  Who
can estimate the worth of such a man, at such a time as
that in which he became a resident of this State?
  II.  In the choice of a profession for life, he entered
upon a career of real service.  The conscientious and suc-
cessful physician  is never too highly estimated as a mem-
ber of society.  Indeed too often he is the hardest work-
ed, and perhaps the least appreciated of men.  His call-
ing leaves him little opportunity for the habitual enjoy-
ment of home, or to consult his own ease.  In Summer's
heat and Winter's cold, he keeps his busy round, and
plies his healing ministry.  Dr. Ford  was a  martyr to
his professional duties.  He graduated from the MedicaJ
College of the city of Philadelphia, in 1844, and entered
immediately upon the  practice of medicine at  Norwich,
Connecticut.  The indefatigable zeal with which he pur-
sued his work, soon introduced him to a most extensive
practice.  The community felt that he was not simply a 
14
physician, but a man of culture and faith, whose pres-
ence in their families was always the means of blessing.
The twelve years of his professional !if;ra!:  Norwich, are
long since passed.   Their history will not probably  be
written here, butthey have gone up to engrave their record
upon the book of God's  remembrance.  What instances
there were in it of life rescued through his  hand from the
jaws of death, what services rendered to the poor under
the power of disease, when his only reward was the trib-
ute of their tearful  gratitude!  He was a Christian phy-
sician, and carried, we doubt not, his Christian  experi-
ence into his professional life.  No calling can  be dis-
charged without faith  in God, but there is a special fit-
ness where  other  qualifications  exist, in the making
choice by the disciple of Christ of the healing art as his
life work. Though Dr.  Ford had retired from the pro-
fession, we think we hazard nothing in saying in behalf
of his brethren who remain in it, that he will  be  mussed
from its ranks.
  III.  We remark further that while actively, engaged
in his chosen work in Norwich,  he frequently stepped
aside from it to serve other interests, especially those of
the cause of  education.  He labored persistently  to per-
fect the Common School  system  of that intelligent and
picturesque  city of Connecticut.   His constitution, nat-
urally somewhat frail, sunk, however, under accumulat-
ing burdens, and necessitated a change of climate.  An
old resident of the city has described him stepping from
the boat upon the  levee in this city, in company with
Rev. Dr. Hiscox, then his pastor, on a May morning in
1855.  Not long after he took up his residence here, and
became closely identified with the interests of his adopt-
ed home.  His professional career here, though eminent-
ly successful, terminated after a few years of unremitting
labor, and now is in some measure overshadowed by his
distinguished services in behalf of the educational inter-
ests of the city and State.  He placed a high and just es-
timate upon  the  Common School system of the Eastern 
15
 States, and labored assiduously to engraft it upon  the
 policy of this State.  He lived to see his wishes in this
 respect realized in a great degree.  The young State in
 which he lived in her generous School fund  and liberal
 educational policy leads her older sisters of New Eng-
 land.  I shall not forget last midsummer standing with
 Dr. Ford upon the lower roof  of his residence, the day of
 the completion of your chaste and beautiful City  High
 School  edifice.  Strains  of music  from its tower were
 borne over to us while  he, with  a  flush of pride de-
 scribed the features of the building.  His work with
 reference to the Normal School system of this State  has
 received a merited tribute from the pen of one who from
 intimate association  with him  was qualified, as is no one
 else, to speak.  *
  He says:  "The crowning  labors  in the  life of this
 good man are those whio he has so  unselfishly and nobly
 given toward the establishment  of the great Normal
 School system of the State.  Dr. Ford was, we believe,
 the first to propose this comprehensive plan for the pre-
 paration of teachers, without which all  other efforts for
 the education of the  masses must be comparatively val-
 ueless.  Few men in our  country yet appreciate as fully
as he has done the great idea symbolized and represented
 by these institutions for the training of those who are to
 become the missionaries and instructors of the masses.  He
believed with Horace Mann, that, "coiled up within this
 institution, is a spring whose  uncoiling may wheel the
spheres."  Hence his faith in its power for good amount-
ed almost to inspiration.  We  think none will differ with
 us in the expression  of the belief that but  for his  labors
the Normal School of this State would hot now be in ex-
 istence.  Through all  its vicissitudes he has been the
same unwavering, hopeful, counselor and friend.  While
others  have  despaired, he has believed.  When others
were indifferent and inactive, he labored, and not  until
he beheld it a fixed fact—not until he foresaw it clearly
 * Prof. Wm. F. Phelps. 
16
expanding in the fullness of its power and usefulness—
not, we  fear, until he felt premonitions of failing mor-
tality and a growing necessity for repose from the cares
of life, did he relinquish his  place at the helm,  where
he has nobly stood through the last eight dubious years."
  He could afford to wait the verdict of posterity upon
such an enterprise as this.  And wrhen the tramp  of the
coming generations shall have been heard  for centuries
over the fertile plains of Minnesota, when  the noble  in-
stitution rising yonder into form and beauty,  shall have
lifted during those centuries its crowned turrets toward
the sky,  his name will be  mentioned, as  that  faithful,
early worker, who would not bate one jot of heart or hope
until he saw the Normal idea wrought into the pillars of
this State.
  IV.  Dr. Ford endeavored  to make his peculiarities
serve the best interests of society.   He was a marked,
peculiar man.  He had the capacity to project, and a will
strong  enough to execute,  large plans.  He  may have
seemed cold and unsympathising  when some  favorite
plan, crystalizing in his  mind, absorbed his energies.—
But behind it all the life current still ran  warm.   Says
one who  knew him  most intimately, "He was emphat-
ically a man of deeds, and not  of words.  Principle, not
feeling, governed all his life.  The question  with him
was  not  one of inclination or pleasure alone; but is it
right f  is it duty?  That being settled, he  never hesitat-
ed, but with remarkable tenacity of  purpose, he  perse-
vered unto  the end.   When Dr. Ford undertook any-
thing, we felt that if it came within the range of human
possibilities, it was  sure to be accomplished.  Obstacles
and opposition could not turn him from his purpose."
  If he was impatient of restraint and opposition, it was
because his decisions were reached generally after due
consideration.  He intimated upon his death bed, his  re-
luctance  to depart and leave some plans unexecuted.—
We cannot lift the veil to inquire what  they  were.__ 
17
 Though in appearance old, he was but fifty-one.  His
 day of life was cut short not far beyond its noon.
               "What mortal's work is done?
               What servant shall be as his Lord?
               'Tis finished—was a dying cry once heard-r-
               It rose to heaven—alone."
  V.  In the amenities of life, and in the higher walks
 of culture, he served well.  Dr.  Ford was a gentleman
 who brought the courtly manners of the old school into
 the  present generation.  His courtesy to strangers has
 contributed in no small degree to  the enviable reputa-
 tion for hospitality which  Winona enjoys.  He  had a
 strong aversion to public life, and always appeared to the
 best advantage when extending the cordialties of his de-
 lightful  home to strangers or friends.  His cultivated
 taste, and love of the beautiful in art and nature,  made
 that home and its  surroundings an  object on which the
eye loved to linger.  Its pleasant  wralks and bowers, its
 varied flowers and fruits, will miss his familiar presence,
 while faith beholds him,
                       "in those celestial gardens,
       Where angels walk, and seraphs are the wardens."
  He was an ardent lover of music.  When care-fretted
 and weary, it brought him soothing and rest.  He great-
 ly enjoyed the service of song in the house of the Lord,
and kept his place in the choir up  to  the period of his
 last sickness.
  VI.  But lastly and  chiefly—he served his generation
as a Christian.   He put on the Lord Jesus Christ at Corn-
 ish,  at twelve years of ago.  His membership was after-
 wards transferred to the Norwich Central Baptist Church,
 from which body he was received into  the First Baptist
 Church of Winona by letter, according to its official record,
 Jan. 30,1857.  He took this church into hi? heart as his per-
 sonal care, and toiled and planned for it, as he would for
 an individual  interest.   His piety was not of the dem-
 onstrative type.  Indeed it had not as much self-revela-
 tion as  we could have wished.  His  fellow-disciples
 would  have welcomed  disclosures of Christian experi-
 ence which he took with him  unrevealed into the other 
18
world.  While on the borders of the river of death, he
expressed his regret at having done so little for the cause
he loved so much.  What to others seemed so great ap-
peared to him to dwindle into insignificance in the light
which was reflected from a near eternity.  Like others,
we believe, he cast everything else  away, to  trust the
simple word of his Savior.  With this  vision  of him,
leaning on Jesus in the swellings of Jordan, we dismiss
his earthly life.  Faults it doubtless had, but they seem
to-day lost in the sum of his virtues.  Errors of judgment
he probably made; but in view of the one purpose which
ruled his life—in view of his fidelity to God, we believe
that  when on  Tuesday evening last his spirit  lifted its
pinions  for a  homeward flight, there met him on the
golden  strand,  his Savior  glorified,  with  the  words,
" Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been
faithful  over a few things, I will  make thee ruler over
many things; enter thou into the joy  of thy Lord."
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